Palm App Catalog, Not Yet a Success [App Purchase Limitations Imposed; Bug Determines Palm to Temporarily Remove Paid Apps from the Store]

If Apple manages to run a successful App Store it doesn’t mean that anyone else can do it too. And Apple’s App Store is certainly successful as there are over 75,000 apps inside and they have been downloaded so far about 2 billion times. Palm’s similar venture, the brand new App Catalog, isn’t doing that good yet.

Sure we will not overlook the fact that the App Store isn’t perfect either as Apple has more than once proved it will do as it pleases when it comes to the App Store and the content it offers. But at least Apple’s App Store has been working properly from day one. That’s one characteristic Palm’s App Catalog still lacks.

So what’s wrong with the App Catalog? Ignoring the fact that Palm launched its store too long after announcing it, it looks like the company is not yet ready to manage it properly. A certain bug in the system would let you download paid apps for free. All you had to do was to build your own dummy application and give it the same name of the app you wanted. Then you simply had to request an update for that app which would get you free access to the paid version you were actually interested in. Everything has been fixed apparently and although Palm removed the paid apps when noticing the issue, they should be available for download right about now.

The App Catalog is definitely not yet a success! For whatever reason Palm has decided to limit the number of applications that can be installed by users on their Pre handsets. In fact Palm has issued automatic warnings to customers advising them to delete applications from the Pre in order to be able to install more apps. And Palm is ignoring the OS issue so far as its customer support department is denying these limitations. What’s the matter Palm? These limitations are costing you money since users aren’t purchasing more apps!

Am I done complaining? Not entirely folks! There’s one more problem with Palm’s App Catalog. The company has announced that it’s willing to let developers skip the App Catalog and offer them a special URL for app open distribution over the Internet. Sure the move is interesting from the developer’s point of view. But regular users will be even more confused when getting apps. What should they look for? The App Catalog, which we’ve seen it’s not perfected yet, or some dedicated URL which will offer free apps?